


No Better Death

by CoffeeMinx



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Canon Compliant, Chantry Issues, Gen, so this means melancholy and foreshadowing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 09:30:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6112288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoffeeMinx/pseuds/CoffeeMinx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically, what if ELTHINA KNEW.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Better Death

Grand Cleric Elthina watched the handsome blonde mage in the feathered coat trudge out the Chantry doors. Such a sad and troubled young man. He performed many good works in the crowded and odiferous slums of Darktown. 

Which was apparently why he didn’t realize quite how strongly sela petrae, concentrated manure and urine gathered from the sewers, smelled.

Or perhaps he merely assumed she would not know its use. In any case, he definitely thought her oblivious to his plan. Even her pun, playing on the similar sounds of the word ‘balm’ and ‘bomb,’ had gone unnoticed.

Well, they all thought her a fool. She knew that. Perhaps she was. 

_Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just._

That was a comma in the middle of that lyric, not a period. Peacekeepers and champions weren’t two separate things. Peacekeepers were meant to champion justice, not enforce peace at all costs. 

She had been trying to avoid conflict in Kirkwall for so long she’d lost track of the difference between a just peace and an oppressive desert. 

When had her Chantry stopped advocating for the downtrodden and started hoping only for their compliance? 

Yes, her Chantry had ignored the poor and turned a blind eye to suffering, all in the name of peace, even as violence profaned the very Chantry building itself. Bandits and pirates had killed beneath this altar. Petrice had planned murder within these walls. The Light of the Maker no longer shone here.

It should all come down.

“Is something wrong, Your Grace?” Sebastian’s voice. Concerned.

“No, my child.” Elthina lied. Wrongs had already been done. It was time for things to be made right. She turned and patted his gleaming armored shoulder. “Go to your friend Hawke. He has need of you. And send Sister Samea to me.” 

The Chantry would have to be quietly evacuated. Easy, that, as there were never more than a few people inside. That should have told her something long ago. 

Perhaps first she could request some force mages to come visit her. There were a great many of them in Kirkwall’s Circle. If the departing Sisters smuggled them to suitable points around the city, they could protect citizens from falling debris at the appropriate moment. Might even garner the mages some appreciation and respect, support they would need in the aftermath.

Knight-Captain Cullen would send mages without asking problematic questions. He was a good lad.

She would stay behind, of course. The mages had taken enough blows. It was time someone sacrificed for them.

_**“There is no greater devotion than to lay one's life at the Maker's feet. There is no better death than to take the blow for another.” ― Grand Cleric Elthina** _

**Author's Note:**

> Just for the record, I refuse to believe Anders - healing mage extraordinaire, who has been saving people's lives since he was 12 years old (that's official canon) - would blow up the Chantry without some thought of debris containment, to make sure debris didn't rain down "over half the city" (that's from the Twitter feed of a DA writer). 
> 
> Yes, the graphics look better with an explosion, but surely a controlled implosion was more Anders' style?
> 
> But that's just me.


End file.
